**Thora ** Written and illustrated by Gillian Johnson (A&R $14.95) First in a new and charming series about a ten year old girl who is half human, half mermaid. Thora wears her pony-tail in a scrunchie – to disguise the blow-hole on top of her head – has scales on her legs and feet that […]

First, it was Jack The Ripper Patricia Cornwell chose to investigate, now the world’s best-selling crime writer says she has uncovered new evidence during a six-month investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. It is believed Cornwell had access to those involved in the autopsy and has uncovered the truth about Diana’s rumoured […]

Exclusive extract from Barra Creek (Pan Macmillan Australia) by Di Morrissey, the Great Read in The Australian Women’s Weekly, November issue. Preface: It’s 1963 and Sally Mitchell, the well-bred daughter of a wealthy new Zealand sheep farmer, has impulsively taken a job as a governess at a cattle station, Barra Creek, in the wild Gulf […]

Shot, by Gail Bell (Picador,$28) When the author is 17, she is shot in the back. The crime is never solved and Gail, although changed forever by the trauma and suffering of on-going side effects, carries on with her life. This book is her exploration of the event – the police investigation, the experience, her […]

Q & A with Di Morrissey, author of Barra Creek (Pan Macmillan Australia), the Great Read in the November issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. **Q. You have said that each book comes as a strange gift and that you wait for whatever fateful circumstances bring each novel to you – what were they in […]

To celebrate our 70th birthday, we asked a few members of the team at The Australian Women’s Weekly to nominate their favourite five books of all time. Here they are: Deborah Thomas, Editor Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer Wild Swans, by Jung Chang The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold The Wilder Shores of Love, […]

The prolific, talented Jackie French has won Book of the Year for her gorgeous children’s book, Diary of a Wombat, published by HarperCollins. Jackie, who is the gardening writer for The Australian Women’s Weekly, won against some impressive titles, including Recollection of a Bleeding Heart, Across The Nightingale Floor, Holy Cow and Almost French. The […]

We hope you enjoy this exclusive extract is from Three Wishes (Pan MacMillan Australia), by Liane Moriarty, our October Great Read. It was a Wednesday night six weeks before Christmas. A nothing sort of night. An unassuming midweek night that should have vanished from their memories by Friday. ‘What did we do Wednesday?’ ‘I don’t […]

Exclusive interview with LIANE MORIARTY, author of the Great Read, THREE WISHES (Pan Macmillan Australia), in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. **Q You have an unusual first name? A** Mum read it in a book somewhere, I think it’s German. **Q You have described yourself as an annoying little girl and said […]

The 2003 Byron Bay Writers Festival was another fabulous success with a record crowd of 20,000 plus, converging on the wildly beautiful North Coast town. Bar the arctic freeze which gripped opening night festivities, visitors lapped up a mid-winter dose of Byron’s blazing blue skies and warm sun. A few people went for a swim. […]